Here begins another three week Jeepin' odyssey, more or less. The first few days were a leisurely trip out to South Dakota via Nebraska. The next five days were the best Challenge in many years, once again with the " Boyz from Illinoiz " . Then Tim and I made a quick trip from South Dakota to New Mexico (since we were half way there, anyway.) The next five days were spent attending the UFWDA 25th convention and wheelin' in Farmington. After " adjusting " the damn Currie R & P (again) in Farmington, we decided to take a side trip to the San Juans for a few days before heading home. This page will cover Nebraska and South Dakota, another page will cover Farmington and the San Juans. First Four Days, Getting There

Saturday. Left the Chicago area for Omaha to visit with some friends I met in Moab . Clint and his dad, Dallas, let me park the motorhome behind their shop (which was conveniently next to a jogging path :) and provided much entertainment. After an incredible amount of arm twisting, they convinced me to go Hootin' with them that night. On the way, just had to stop and get a $250 million PowerBall ticket. A lot of good that did! After 4 or 5 hours at Hooter's, decided I couldn't drink as much as I used to, so went back to the " campground " and slept it off (more or less.)

Sunday. Doggone, the sun was bright! Went to the SAC museum then headed to Halsey and the Nebraska National Forest (I kid you not - they DO have a National Forest!!) Took a quick trip through the sand to the Dismal River then tried to find where we got high centered with the Suburban (and had to spend the night before digging out) in 1983 but couldn't find the spot. Probably just as well. Put the YJ on the trailer and noticed a spot on the trailer. Damn! The water pump was leaking. Time for a beer.

Monday. Picked up a water pump, anti-freeze and a nice thick steak at Alliance and headed to Toadstool Park, 19 miles north of Crawford and 14 miles on a washboard gravel road. Cool! Replaced the pump in the middle of nowhere. Their fire grate made a great vise to hold the old pump while removing the & ^# & )%# studs that that weren't provided with the new pump. Some nice BLM folks came by and couldn't quite understand the rationale of driving out there to change the pump. " You're doing what?? " - " Here?? " - " Hell, I couldn't even do that in my garage! " - " You have tools to do that?? " - " Out here? "                     Glad that once again that I could provide entertainment.

Yeah, when I say in the middle of nowhere, I mean it! No one around for miles (except for a few rattlesnakes in the little sod hut at the right side of the photo.) It was great.

So after the pump was done, the next adventure was to chase a few of the BNSF coal trains. Saw a few near Crawford Hill. Six 6,000 HP engines - 3 pulling and 3 pushing. Pretty impressive for Nebraska. Drove up to Belmont to watch them again and had the opportunity to see the only railroad tunnel in Nebraska. Ooops, I mean I wanted to see it but couldn't since it was on BNSF private property. Foiled again! Time for a beer. Tuesday. On to Rapid City, through a neat thunderstorm. Especially impressive was the direct lightning strike on the electric substation that was about 300 feet away. Finally got to Highway 385 and set up at Whispering Pines for my 7th year at the DTC.

Now Doc was supposed to write this part of the article. Here it is, almost March and I'm still waiting. Nevadomski keeps asking where the article is, so I've been appropriately shamed into writing this - having forgotten most everything. If Doc ever gets his article written (which will be much better written than this, believe me), I'll replace this with his version. Here's our " early " group: (left to right) Tim, myself, Garry, John, Craig, Doc and Randy. Other " Boyz from Illinoiz " not shown are Jim, Tony, Tom & Debbie, Bill, and Ken. Not sure about Craig in this photo.

Wednesday. The " early " group went to Jake. A very fine time. A little later more " Boyz from Illinoiz " showed up so we did it again. Since I had no trouble finding it the first time, it was much easier to find it the second time. Once again, proved my navigation skills. (Notice, I didn't say what it proved!) And Doc's YJ purred like a kitten - a kitten with a hairball stuck somewhere. Doc: thanks for the entertainment! And Jim, with all that orange paint on the rocks, we knew what line not to take. (This was Jim's first time in South Dakota and - wow - did he get a lesson the first day - and the second - and the third......) He started out with a CJ7 but by the last day it was the size of a CJ5. What a perfect way to start the carnage.
	This isn't Jake, it's Jim. And by the look on his face, he really doesn't give a rip about how much paint he's leaving behind. He's having the time of his life!
	Thursday. Started the day off with the tech inspection. Everything went fine until the left from wheel almost fell off. However, I did pass the inspection since there was no requirement to have front wheels or to have the corresponding axle nuts sufficiently tight. After setting them to 800 ft lbs to ensure they wouldn't come off again, we finally set out on our trek for Kong, the official newbie initiation trail (until 2002 when we plan to take more fresh meat on Twisted for their initiation!!) Once again proved my navigational skills. Actually, we took the scenic route just for Tom and Debbie (their first time our here also.) What can I say - Kong is Kong. While it's not much of a challenge anymore, it's still a real fun trail and we all had one helluva good time - but then we always do!
Friday. Officially ran Twisted. Good news: my wheel didn't fall off today. We pretty much blew through Twisted. It was fine entertainment to see our fearless leader get wedged between a rock and a hard place. Tom, who had learned about rock magnets the previous day, continued the adjustment of his nerf bars. We had a great time. On the return trip we all developed a powerful thirst but couldn't find any bars worthy of us. So we stopped at a gas station and Tim brown bagged it. Wish I could remember more of it, but the photos speak for themselves. Click here for more photos of Twisted (150k).
	Saturday. T-Back. The day started off with a looong drive. It got even better when we got on a gravel road and couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of us. But soon we were at the trailhead and the entertainment began. A ways into the trail, the guy who complains about my navigation skills, Doc, fell asleep and drove off the side of the trail. This was by a large tree and there was a pretty good drop-off, maybe 10-15 feet or so. We have no photos of this event as we were laughing so hard we couldn't keep the camera in focus. So after waking up the good Doctor, winching him back on the trail and giving him a couple No-Doze, off we went. The last part of the trail was gnarly to say the least. I just about went over on my side (again). Doc redeemed himself a little by climbing up a few obstacles. All in all we had a great time and required little use of toilet paper. Oh yeah, did I mention that Tim, our fearless leader's rig, didn't even make it over the first obstacle. I wasn't going to bring that up - well - yeah, I was...... Click here for more photos of T-Back.
Sunday. The last official trail was Hal Johns. This trail always provides entertainment. My wheel stayed on but my steering shaft didn't. Right on a fairly interesting obstacle, my steering wheel started to free-wheel. Everyone was very patient with me while I cursed, mumbled, and repaired the steering shaft. Screamin's Jeep, to no one's surprise, died earlier in the trail and rumor has it he had to cut a hole in the body to get access to the tank and the flaky fuel pump. At least Doc didn't break an axle this year and have sparks and flames shooting out from under his YJ. Too bad. At the end of the day, Jeepman took us on a walking tour of 4.3. Hell, we couldn't even walk it! Maybe next year we might be able to play on it a little. And that marked the end of a good day and a good weekend at the Challenge. Click here for more photos of Hal Johns.
John's awesome TJ.	Doc's awesome flare.

If you notice, there are a lot of references to Doc in this article. There are two reasons for that: (1) He was supposed to write this article 7 months ago and now I have to do it. (2) Without a doubt, he provided by far the most entertainment of anyone in our group this year. For example, he had some crap in his gas tank and it took him 3 days of sputtering (the Jeep, as well as Doc) and 6 fuel filters to diagnose. He then attempted to solve the problem by dropping the tank and cleaning out Rapid City of all the cans of Drano he could find and then dumping them in his gas tank in an effort to remove the crap (isn't that what Drano is supposed to do?) And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There was the night that about 10 people, all more than primed with adult beverages, attempted to " help " Doc fix his problem. Some were cutting wires. Others were under the Jeep. Still others were removing errant parts. The smart ones, however, just kept drinking their beers and watching Doc's Jeep get randomly dismantled, piece by piece. So Doc, " Thanks for the memories! "

And thanks Black Hills 4 Wheelers for another incredible event! There oughta be a law against having so much fun. These few days were great - even after I ran the motor home off the road exiting the campground and put a few more beauty marks on it. It's catching up to the Jeep. And, for those masochists among you, click here to see the " the rest of the story, " Farmington and the San Juans.

Created 02/19/02. Last Modified: